Mayor Emanuel hosts 2nd town hall

At his second town hall meeting this week, Mayor Emanuel took dead aim at past political corruption, promising to reform the use of controversial tax increment financing.

The meeting was supposed to be about getting ideas from the people for the next city budget. But the overflow crowd had questions about everything from schools to potholes.

The mayor promised the city would become more efficient. And in a swipe at past administrations he accused them of using denial as a budget strategy. He was asked about the use of TIF money by corporations.

"Would you commit to not giving money to giant corporations and would you commit to shutting down these downtown TIFS?"

"Here are the economic standards, here are the job creation numbers, here's the accountability and transparency that's gotta be apparent and that's the way we'll make decisions so it doesn't look like subjective to give friends of the mayor or city council member a TIF-grant based on political connections," said Emanuel.

Emanuel promised that all information on TIFS will be made public to avoid the intrusion of politics.